peteski

"Mouses"? That must be Canadien too. In American English I would expect "mice", or if you are a old cartoon fan, it would be "mices".

I guess to be perfectly in-scale one would have to actually measure the specific 1:1 wheels. I guess that 0.5" (or 0.021" in 1:24) one way or another is not going to make that much difference after all.

My experience (over the last 30+ years) is exactly opposite. I have used multiple brands of 5-minute epoxies for "glass" and other tasks (even the ones where the liquid hardener looks clear, not slightly amber like others), and after few years they *ALL* turned darker amber. If someone wants their model to look good after several years, I strongly discourage using 5-minute epoxies to represent gauge "glass" or any other item which is supposed to be clear.

Sean, in today's world, it's nto quite like that. The diameter doesn't matter. In some cars you have one of those couple dozen of computer modules in a car sitting in the door, and all the switches in that door (power windows, locks, power seats, mirrors, etc.) are all connected to that tiny computer module which monitors them. Then that computer passes the status of the switches to the other computers inside the car. So all you need in that door harness you are talking about is 12V, Ground and thin CANbus network cable (sort of like car's Internet). No need for any sausages, and if the computer module in the door malfunctions, hell brakes loose. 🙂

Thank you Tim. This means a lot to me coming from a modeler of your caliber. I still have that model and occasionally I display it at local model shows. Unfortunately the clear coat yellowed, so it lost some of its visual appeal. Back when I built that model I didn't know about the yellowing Testors clear.

What I was explaining is that your bead diameter, to be properly scaled, is still not quite large enough. The lip of a 15" diameter wheel would measure 16.5" (not 16"). I mentioned that because when you do your won CAD design, it is easy to change it to make the dimensions more accurate. Just making a suggestion . . .

Len, does it really matter whether the "problem" is with the plastic or the stripping fluid? Bottom line is that the incompatibility is the real problem. DOT3 brake fluid was never meant to be a plastic-safe paint stripper. If you use it, you run a risk of failure. Having said that, even when using plastic-safe paint strippers (designed for that task) there is always a warning on their labels to check compatibility first.

Some model magazines (like FineScale Modeler) had a special discounted rate in the ad section for advertising model contests and similar events. But realistically, this is year 2025 and the advertising section in printed magazines is pretty much non-existent. Most of this happens online now. Using social media for show announcement provides much larger (and free) audience, which then gets to even larger audience by others sharing the info with their friends. The club I belong to has our show flyer downloadable as a PDF file on our website and it is also shared on Facebook. That is likely better coverage than just a printed version in a magazine. I'm old-fashion and I enjoy reading hard copy magazines, but I also realize that I'm a dinosaur and the future is on the Internet.

I feel your pain but I believe the answer is "popularity". As you likely know by searching the forum for motorcycle models, they make up very small fraction of the posts. Not enough to warrant splitting them up into separate section. Back when they reshuffled the forum's categories few years ago I was also not thrilled that they got rid of the large scale section. it was nice to be able to just browse the large scale models (and there were not that many of them either). I also was not fond of getting rid of the separate big-rig subsections, merging them into the various general sections.

These wheels look very nice. While the inner diameter of a tire is 15" that does not translate directly to what is visible on the car and on the properly scaled wheel of a model. That is because the wheel has a raised rim in which the bead sits. The visible diameter of a 15" wheel is roughly 1.5" larger than the specified diameter. And that is what we see on a real car or on the model. So a 1:1 scale 15" wheel has a visible diameter of approx. 16.5". In 1:24 scale that would be 0.6875" or 17.4625. Remember that when designing your model wheels. This is true for all the passenger car wheels. Might be different for truck tires - I have not measured those. 16.93mm in 1:24 scales up to 15.99" visible wheel diameter. It is slightly undersized, but not by much (about 0.5 scale inches). 16.93mm in 1:25 scales up to 16.66" visible diameter, so that scale 15" wheel is actually better suited to be perfectly in scale for a 1:25 model. Looks like Alex did make an attempt to make his wheels correctly sized (visually), but IMO didn't go quite far enough. At least according to my calculations. I might be splitting hairs, but when designing something from scratch, might as well scale them properly. Good thing is that using CAD and 3D printing on-demand, it is fairly easy to resize the design.

Yes, toothpaste as polishing compound. That trick has been around for a long time. But it needs to be the white opaque colored paste, not any of the translucent gels that are out there. Also, it's not the baking soda grit that does the polishing - that grit is way too coarse to polish paint. Take some polishing compound for 1:1 cars and put between your fingers and you better not feel any grit. Should be smooth. Polishing compounds use very finely ground abrasive particles. Those opaque (usually white in color) toothpastes contain polish (those finely ground abrasives) to to polish your teeth. As such, they can be used to polish other surfaces (like paint on a model car), but they are very mild - it will take a lot of rubbing to get a mirror-like surface. I say you are better off using a polishing compound designed for the job of polishing paint.

I don't disagree with you David. But as I mentioned, this model is supposed to be a specific replica of that show's car. So rivet counters (or license plate location checkers) should be very happy that Revell actually rendered this small detail correctly. As to why the staff decided to do that, who knows why.

I don't think that is what the question was about. In your case you sprayed the Tamiya paint over another paint (and the silver paint was likely painted over primer which is over bare metal).

Looks good Bart!

Exactly! I posted the eraser idea 2 posts earlier.

The belt material is just a cloth ribbon - it has no adhesive on it. As others stated, you need to cleanly glue it to the seat. CA glue or even white glue can be messy if not applied carefully. Another alternative would be to coat one side of the belt (after adding the buckles) with a thin layer of Microscale Metal Foil Adhesive. It is a white fluid which becomes clear when dry, and it remains sticky. Then just stick the belts to the seats.

Painting the transoarent red lens silver then adding a red wash to me misses the point. After all the lens should be transparent red. Couple of ideas: Dry brush silver paint over the raised ribs. Spread a thin layer of silver paint on a flat pencil eraser, then press the ribs gently into the paint. The rubbery eraser will allow the paint to stick to the ribs.

DOT3 brake fluid is glycol-based. Some hobby plastic-safe strippers are also glycol-based, but they are slightly different chemically. I have seen many examples of DOT3 brake fluid affecting polystyrene, especially after long duration immersion. I am not too surprised your model fell apart. Safer plastic-safe stripping alternatives are Lye (sodium hydroxide) based Those will not harm polystyrene, even after long exposure. Another one is 99% Isopropyl alcohol.

Maybe so David, but since this is a model of the show's car, the license plate location is accurate.

Shouldn't be. As I understand it, glossy undercoat (black or other dark color) should be used for Chrome, and maybe for polished brass. And gloss undercoat is not really a "primer" but just a smooth glossy surface needed to achieve the mirror-like reflectivity of the "polished" paints.

Yes, and we can thank the Internet for enabling those dealers to do a quick Google search for those items to get some ideas of their values. 30 years ago, unless they were seasoned modelers (which most were not), then they had no clue as to the value of those "toy" model kits. Of course some of the prices they see on their search might also be unrealistically high, so they have to decide what is a fair price.

Well then Oleksandr, thanks for the clarification. The lenses you showed look perfect! Looks like you did your homweaork and you get an A+ I was just making my opinion based on the photo you posted earlier. The angle of the light source must have make those lenses look like they only had horizontal lines.

I didn't know there was a "light smoke". The glass jar I have is called just "smoke" (from their transparent paints line), and yes, multiple coats will gradually get darker. I believe that Alclad also has a similar paint that is airbrush ready (called "tint" maybe?) but those are hot paints and will likely craze polystyrene if applied directly to the bare plastic.

Yes, that clear-coat-like Tamiya metal primer. I have it and I used it, but I'm still l leery about it. Why clear? Primer is supposed to provide a smooth and even color base for the top coat. It doesn't dry flat. Clear also doesn't hide any imperfections or difference in colors between dissimilar metals (like brass and solder). I'm wondering if this is one of those funny Japanese to English translation errors, and it is not a primer at all. I wish Tamiya provided a better explanation or instructions as to why clear is good as a metal primer. As for the vinegar etching rinse, I assume Dave is describing household vinegar. That has a concentration of only 4%. Diluting it 50/50 with water would yield a 2% solution. You probably have to let the metal item in that solution for a week to get any appreciable etching. Having said that, I do sometimes etch my brass parts in vinegar, but I use a 25% Vinegar concentrate, and let the parts sit in the solution for few minutes. Also, like Ace mentioned, they have to be degreased first (acetone works well), or or grease/oil will act as a resist and vinegar will not touch those areas.

It is possible that it is the resin that is leaching some chemical out and affecting (softening) the cured paint. Just like the "tire melt" with vinyl leaching plasticizer (thick fluid) which then softens the plastic in contact with it. That also takes months or years to happen. That's why I asked you if you had other models made with the same resin and painted using the same paint to see if they were also affected the same way. Your original post seems to indicate only a single model having the problem, but the post I quoted now seems to indicate "cars" or multiple models, but still no answer as to whether a single or multiple models were affected.